Audi RS 6 Avant: ‘Power From A Less Obvious Place’

(Agency: BBH London; Air date: 23/8/13; Length: 60 seconds)

I was struck by the high production values of Audi’s latest TV spot for their RS 6 Avant station wagon and at first thought I’d stumbled on to a real boxing match. In high definition and crisp, bright colours we see a fighter, flanked by his entourage, enter a floodlit arena to the familiar fanfare of a screaming crowd and media scrum, with his opponent awaiting him in the ring. The fight gets underway; however, unusually for a boxing match, the camera doesn’t follow the fighters but rather the referee. We see the ref stalk about the ring and watch the two fighters like a hawk, not afraid to jump into the path of flying fists or admonish the boxers if they break the rules. When the fight is over, we see the ref quietly exit the arena down a darkened tunnel, leaving the victorious fighter to soak up the adulation in the background. From the tunnel emerges an RS 6 Avant with the words, ‘Power…from a less obvious place’, before the car roars out of shot.

What we are seeing here is not actually a real boxing match but an ‘almost real’ fight between former world cruiserweight champion Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham, in the black shorts, and contender B.J. ‘The Stinger’ Flores, in the white shorts. The fight was arranged specifically for this ad but Flores attests in this article that the punches were very real. The impressive look of the ad is explained when one learns it was directed by filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, responsible for, among other things, the acclaimed Guinness ‘Surfer’ ad of 1999. So, who is the third man in the ring? His name is Tony Weeks and he is one of the most respected referees currently working in the sport. He is also a metaphor for the RS 6 Avant: the advert suggests the role of boxing referee, like the car, is understated yet powerful, or, as this reviewer neatly puts it, is ‘not too flashy, and not the highest profile, but the right place for somebody who likes to be in control’.

I like this ad because it is visually compelling – there’s something very primal in humans that makes it hard to tear our eyes away from a fight, especially in the hyped up, electric atmosphere of a professional boxing match. The use of boxing referee as metaphor for Audi’s station wagon is also quite clever, even though the car is very sleek and certainly at the top end of the estate car market. BBH London probably didn’t have any trouble picking a boxing referee to cast in the ad, as none currently working in the business could be considered too high profile to ruin the metaphor. However, I think the agency will have consciously chosen not to look within the heavyweight division to cast the ad, for fear that the reputation of, say, a David Haye, Tyson Fury, or one of the Klitschko brothers would overshadow the referee and distract viewers from the ad’s message (not to mention the astronomical fees they would probably charge). This is why we see a bout between two cruiserweights who I, and presumably most other viewers, would not previously have heard of. Cunningham and Flores have never fought each other in a ‘real’, sanctioned fight before; however, I wonder if that will soon change after the exposure this ad has given both fighters.